Japanese investors have abandoned a deal to buy more than a million tonnes of gas each year from Woodside Petroleum's planned Browse development in Western Australia.

Woodside had two deals with the investment company MIMI - one to jointly market liquefied natural gas in Asia, and one where MIMI committed to buy 1.5 million tonnes of LNG per year off Woodside's Browse development.

The second deal was conditional on a final investment decision on Browse being made by the end of 2013, but Woodside and its partners decided to shelve the previous plan to process the gas onshore and are now investigating floating platform options.

Woodside says MIMI has informed it that it has decided to exercise its right to pull out of the deal.

However, it says the deal for MIMI to jointly market the gas in Asia, particularly to Japanese customers, remains in place.

Woodside shares had fallen 0.6 per cent to $38.655 by 3:14pm (AEDT), bucking a 0.5 per cent rise for the broader market.

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